NEW YORK, March 09, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sword Health, the world's leading AI Health company, today announced the launch of its first-ever direct-to-consumer solution: Dawn. Ushering in a new era for mental health, Dawn tackles two of the system's most pressing problems: the 48-day wait for mental health appointments, and the archaic, reactive nature of the traditional 45-minute therapy session.
Dawn shifts the mental health system to a model where personalized, science-backed support is available 24/7. Through an intuitive conversational interface, users can talk through challenges anytime and receive actionable guidance tailored to their situations in an instant. Crucially, Dawn remembers every interaction and learns about the user to offer deeply personalized support that works and grows with them. To further this personalization, Dawn pairs with calendars and wearables for precise, real-time suggestions—like a breathing exercise before a stressful meeting or a grounding technique during a heart rate spike.
The launch comes at a critical time, as 49% of AI users with mental health concerns currently turn to generic chatbots for support. However, unlike general-purpose AI, Dawn is powered by a proprietary foundational model built specifically for mental health. Trained on hundreds of thousands of hours of clinician data, Dawn combines evidence-based practices—like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and Dialectical Behavior Therapy—with real-time context to offer support that is proactive, actionable, and outcome-driven. This specialization prevents Dawn from the sycophantic nature common in general-purpose models. Real change requires an AI capable of clinical reasoning and challenging a user's beliefs—prioritizing therapeutic outcomes over simple user engagement.
To ensure the highest level of safety, Dawn is integrated with MindGuard, a suite of safety classifiers developed by Sword’s AI research team and PhD-level licensed clinical psychologists. While general AI often fails to distinguish between a past therapeutic disclosure and a current crisis, MindGuard uses a clinically grounded risk taxonomy to interpret nuance with precision. While MindGuard serves as the safety backbone for Dawn, Sword has open-sourced the framework to help the entire industry build safer AI mental health solutions.
"The mental health system is still built for moments of crisis, and that is exactly why so many people end up managing symptoms instead of getting back to a full life," said Virgílio Bento, Founder & CEO of Sword Health. "Dawn represents a fundamentally different approach: moving mental health from crisis response to continuous, always-on care. And that only works with an AI built specifically for mental health, grounded in proprietary, domain-specific models and rigorous clinical safeguards, not a general-purpose chatbot. That’s exactly what we built with Dawn, and we’re making it available to everyone."
Dawn’s development is predicated on Sword’s leading work delivering care with AI, having already treated more than 800,000 members and delivered 11 million AI care sessions across physical pain, women’s health, and cardiometabolic care. Sword’s AI Care solutions are backed by the most extensive clinical validation in the AI Health industry, with 58 peer-reviewed clinical studies published.
Learn more at JoinDawn.com.
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About Sword Health
Sword is a frontier research lab and applied AI platform dedicated to solving healthcare through AI. We operate across two verticals: Sword Health, which uses AI to treat and heal, and Sword Intelligence, which uses AI to scale and automate healthcare operations.
We serve 20% of the Fortune 500, major health plans, national health systems, the US Military, and sovereign governments. Since our 2020 market launch, we have served 800,000+ members who completed 11M AI care sessions, helped 1,000+ clients avoid $1B+ in unnecessary healthcare costs, and delivered clinical outcomes that the traditional Healthcare world can't match at any scale - all by making high-quality healthcare accessible through AI.
Sword’s leading work in Healthcare is backed by 58 clinical studies and 50 patents, and we have raised $500M+ from General Catalyst, Khosla Ventures, Transformation Capital, and Founders Fund (among others).
Contact name: Mariana Ascenção || mariana@swordhealth.com
